Crash
by kaeh96
Summary: AU. Second part of three-part story.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: eyyy second part of this little thingy I'm doing hehe so yeah as always i don't own anything and yeah ENJOY**

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_"__Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn, my God do you learn."_

_-CS Lewis_

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_April 2013_

Jennifer Jareau nearly fell over as she panted heavy, her hands on her knees and her head bowed. She'd just run three miles as a part of her Friday soccer practice, which was always intense conditioning.

"Eat a little too much Easter candy Jareau?" Her teammate, Julia Brown asked.

JJ's head started to pound and she felt herself become infuriated,

"Shut up Julia! Mind your own damn business!"

As the teasing smile on Julia's face faded and a hurt look flashed in her eyes, JJ felt her face flush as she'd realized she'd snapped and been way too harsh.

"Julia, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Julia stomped away, JJ immensely upset with herself. Recently, she'd been a lot more irritable and had absolutely no clue why; it was like she could go from completely realized to enraged in a matter of seconds.

She sighed and packed up her soccer bag, and headed off to the row of parents waiting in cars. It didn't take long for her to find her mother's navy blue Ford mini van. She hopped in and tossed her bag into the back seat.

"How was it?" Sandy Jareau asked her daughter as they turned to each other.

"Hard. We ran, _a lot."_

JJ wiped her sweaty face off with her shirt and quickly turned the air conditioning vents on the passenger side so they aimed directly onto her. Suddenly, a wave of pain rushed through her head and her neck became very sore. She rubbed the back of her head, and Sandy eyed her,

"Your head is still bothering you?"

"Yes." JJ whimpered.

"I'm sorry baby, take some ibuprofen when we get home and just relax. Maybe we can watch a movie after dinner."

JJ simply nodded, eager to get home.

* * *

JJ adjusted the pillow behind her back as she laid with her head, neck, and shoulders against the bottom of the arm of the couch and her legs stretched out in front of her.

"JJ, honey, you could just sit on the couch if you want, there's plenty of room."

Her father, Michael Jareau told her from the opposite side of the couch.

"No, it's okay. I really need for my head to be supported." JJ replied.

He frowned, upset that she was in pain. They fell silent as one of their favorite movies, _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ started to play. JJ sighed as she settled in, willing for the pain to ease.

As the movie went on, JJ felt her headache intensify, the blaring sound and stark contrast of the bright screen and pitch-black room becoming too much for her to handle. She became dizzy, and the bitter taste of bile rose in the back of her throat. She brought her legs to her chest and rested her forehead on her knees.

"JJ, sweetie?" Sandy paused the movie, "Why don't you go to bed? You have soccer again tomorrow morning anyways and you need to be rested."

JJ nodded, stood up, stumbling slightly, and headed into her bedroom, giving a faint "goodnight" to her parents as she left.

Once in bed, the relief that the cool pillowcase was so satisfying that JJ never wanted to forget it. She was restless, but her muscles told her to sleep. Her mind raced, a combination of the pain that just wouldn't go away and the events of the next day and the following Saturday. Her final tournament of the season began the next week, and she was incredibly nervous. She knew she would probably just be doing drills or scrimmages the next day, but she had to be on top of everything; no screw-ups allowed. She was already on the varsity soccer team at East Allegheny High School, and had been since her sophomore year, and she was completely aware that she was slated to be the captain in her senior year. As a junior, she wasn't officially allowed to hold any position of power on the team, but she was often consulted and treated like a captain. She didn't mind the pressure, honestly she knew it would only be helpful in the long run, but she didn't like the idea of having all eyes on her. She was expected to be going to a top-college on a soccer scholarship, since it was the only realistic way she would be going to a "good" school, and she knew that scouts from prestigious schools would be looking at juniors starting soon, and it was almost guaranteed that they would be attending multiple (if not all) of the next week's tournament.

Deciding she was done thinking about it, JJ cleared her mind, and fought her way to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: end of this part. The third part should start being published soon.**

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_"__Be still, and know that I am."_

_-Psalm 46:10_

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'_No, not today.'_ JJ thought as she stooped over the toilet. It was the morning of the first game of the big tournament, and she was sick. Her headache was driving her crazy, and it was now being coupled with vomiting.

_'__Great.'_

She finished, shook her head, and decided to just ignore it. She continued to get ready, brushing her hair and pulling it back into a ponytail, and went downstairs, both of her parents waiting at the door.

"Ready?" Sandy asked.

JJ nodded and they all headed to the car, JJ already starting to gulp a water bottle.

"Easy there JJ, you aren't a camel!" Michael exclaimed as he chuckled. JJ teasingly rolled her eyes, and set the water bottle down.

They arrived at the field, Michael and Sandy heading to the bleachers, and JJ heading over to warm up with her team.

"Alright girls, run three times to the north end of the field and back, then I want stretches and 20 jumping jacks, go!" Her coach commanded them

For JJ, running short distances was like breathing, easy and slow. However, as the sun blared in her eyes she found herself struggling, almost running into a girl going in the opposite direction.

'_Pull it together.'_

She sat down after doing 20 very sloppy jumping jacks, nearly hitting Julia in the face. _Twice._

She pulled on her calf muscles and stretched her knees, keeping her head down so as to avoid the overwhelming light. As people filled in, she found herself bothered by all the noise. Her head felt so heavy that her sore neck could barely support it.

"Jareau, why don't you sit out for the first quarter, you can help us finish this right."

JJ nodded at her coach, deciding she could use some rest time.

She went over and sat in one of the foldable lawn chairs, sipping her water and rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand.

The game started, and JJ wanted to be involved, but she simply couldn't focus. The noise of the crowd, the bright sun, and her pounding head was just too much. She stood up and decided to pace, but got bored with it and started walking laps behind the bleachers and around the field.

As she walked behind the bleachers, she was thankful for the shade and the quiet. Suddenly, she started to lurch. She placed her hands on her knees and bent over, the leftover contents of her stomach ending up on the ground before her. She wiped her mouth and walked on; no one could know she was sick.

JJ continued on, however as she was nearly back to her team's side of the field, her right hand began to violently tremble. Then, her feet.

It seemed like slow motion, but JJ knew somewhere in her mind that everything was happening at once. She lost her legs, and her arms started to jerk.

"She's having a seizure!" JJ thought she heard someone call out.

Then, everything went black.

* * *

JJ woke up in the ambulance, still in her soccer uniform and an IV in her arm.

"Hi, don't move too much, okay? We're almost at the hospital." A female EMT with red hair and blue eyes said to JJ. She felt something made of heavy plastic on her face, like the goggles she wore in chemistry class, but on her mouth. She brought a hand to it.

'_Oxygen mask.'_

She tried to ask what happened, but she was too weak and the EMT's couldn't hear her through the mask.

About five minutes passed until JJ was being wheeled into the emergency room.

"Sixteen year old female, 112 pounds was at a soccer game and had a seizure on the sidelines. She's stable now; her parents said she'd been complaining of severe headaches and had noticed behavioral changes over the past few months." The female EMT that had spoken to JJ quickly spat the facts to one of the ER doctors. The doctor, an African American man that was tall and lean stood over her, glancing at her chart,

"Jennifer, aside from your headache, are you in any pain?"

JJ shook her head.

"Do you feel dizzy?"

JJ nodded; the room around her was spinning.

"Do the lights hurt your head?"

She nodded again.

The doctor nodded and wheeled her into a private temporary holding room.

"Okay Jennifer, your parents are waiting for you in the ER waiting room, we won't be longer than thirty minutes, okay? Are you still a little shaky?"

JJ moved each of her fingers and toes individually, and raised both of her hands, making them do different things to test her own control. All clear.

"No." She said as loudly as she could through the mask that was still on her face. The doctor took it off,

"Alright sweetie, I'm Dr. Jones. I'm going to have you change into a hospital gown and then you need to have an emergency MRI, does that sound good?"

JJ nodded and followed him to a little room with a long wooden locker and a chest. Dr. Jones took out a hospital gown and a pair of hospital socks from the chest, then left for her to change. Slowly, she changed, then stepped out.

"Back here, Jennifer."

She followed Dr. Jones into the room with the MRI machine, followed his instructions, then waited for the scan to begin.

As she heard the machine start up through her earplugs, she relaxed, her muscles tired.

It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

* * *

"Alright Mr. and Mrs. Jareau, Jennifer." Dr. Atlee, a pediatric neurologist, walked into JJ's new room, closing the door behind him. However, as he closed the door, JJ caught a glimpse of another girl about her age with long, brown hair.

_'__I hope her day has been a lot better than mine.'_

Dr. Atlee placed multiple faded pictures on a white surface that JJ recognized as a display board for x-ray's and other kinds of testing images. When he flipped on the light switch, it didn't take JJ long to notice something weird.

"So, as you can see, JJ's brain is perfectly healthy in the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes," Dr. Atlee took his pen as he moved through each part of JJ's brain scan, "and then we get to the cerebellum. This here, is the brain stem." He pointed to a white stick-like thing that seemed to shoot up into JJ's brain near the back of her head, "Then, this big, white mass, right behind the brain stem, almost slammed up against the back of the base of JJ's skull, is our issue."

"Wh-what is it?" Sandy choked, realizing JJ was in serious danger.

Dr. Atlee sighed and a solemn look crossed his face.

"It's a tumor, probably about 5 centimeters in diameter, and it has to be removed immediately."


End file.
